Capsule Film Review: The Fifth Estate (2013)

Julian Assange is today one of the most hated men in Hollywood, mainly because its celebrities and influential people hold him responsible for electoral defeat of their beloved Hillary Clinton. Antipathy towards Australian Internet activist predates those events, at least juding by 2013 biopic The Fifth Estate, based on the book by Assange's main critic and former associate Daniel Domscheit-Berg (in the film played by Daniel Brühl). The plot begins in 2007 with Domscheit-Berg meeting Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) which would lead to creation of Wikileaks and some of the most spectacular government secrets' leaks in history. Directed by Bill Condon and written by Josh Singer, The Fifth Estate generally takes official US government position on the matter and Assange is portrayed as idealistic but ultimately destructive and irresponsible individual whose actions might jeopardise innocent people. Despite intriguing plot, the film is made poorly and its main value is giving the idea how would biopics about Solzhenitsyn and other Soviet dissidents would look if produced by 1970s Mosfilm.

RATING: 4/10